New $20m cable up and running Treasures found, owner lost
A new $20 million fibre optic cable linking Manawatu¯ and Taranaki has just come online to met future data demands and lay the groundwork for upcoming technologies, such as autonomous vehicles.
Over the past year Spark contractors have replaced 286 kilometres of aging cable between Palmerston North and New Plymouth to improve internet access in the region, and it hooked customers up to the new cable for the first time this week.
It was part of Project Westwind, where Spark, Trustpower and Powerco pooled resources to do their respective infrastructure upgrades at the same time. The idea was to make the upgrades cheaper for each company and less frustrating for the public, since the same sections of roadside didn’t need to be dug up over and over again.
Spark physical infrastructure manager Robert Berrill said the replaced cable was one of the oldest in the country, with some sections dating back to when fibre optic cables were first installed in New Spark physical infrastructure manager
Zealand during the 1980s.
Fibre optics degrade over time and after over 30 years the existing cable was providing lower-quality connections, because it was towards the end of its useful operating life.
The cable would have struggled to keep up with Manawatu¯ ’s growing demand for data, which was doubling about every two years. The new cable has nearly seven times the capacity for data, he said.
‘‘These cables are the backbone of connectivity to the information superhighway... There’s a demand for more data that’s growing at everincreasing speed, so we try to keep well ahead.’’
Berrill said the upgrade would provide the capacity for Manawatu¯ residents to take up new datahungry technologies, expected to become increasingly common over the next five to 10 years, from 5G to autonomous vehicles and augmented reality.
Contractors finished laying the cable in February and it was fully connected to Spark’s network by May. Spark technicians then spent the next two months testing and troubleshooting the connection, before starting to shunt internet traffic from the old cable this week. A Palmerston North woman will be reunited with her missing family photos and stamp collection, months after she lost them on a bus.
Rosemary Kennedy lost a bag filled with irreplaceable family photos and a friend’s stamp collection on a bus in January.
After being unable to contact Kennedy after a Tranzit bus driver found the bag, Tranzit manager Stephen du Plessis said she gave him a call on Thursday afternoon.
He said he would be dropping the bag off to her yesterday.
The bag was found months after Kennedy lost it, but returning it to Kennedy proved difficult.
Following publicity over Kennedy’s plight, Tranzit spokeswoman Katie Farman said she looked through the phone book and tried to contact Kennedy, but to no avail.
‘‘After seeing the article with Rosemary’s name, we then went through the White Pages trying to touch base.
‘‘Unfortunately several phones didn’t have an answerphone or it was the wrong number,’’ Farman said.
Recovering from a broken ankle, Kennedy was tired and sore after a day out in Whanganui, and said she was not concentrating when she got off the bus back in Palmerston North. By the time she realised she did not have the bag she had been carrying containing the precious items, it was too late.
At the time, Kennedy told Stuff she was not able to sleep after losing the bag. She was most distraught about losing the stamp collection, as it belonged to a friend.
She also had no other copies of the photos, which included pictures of her grandchildren.
‘‘These cables are the backbone of connectivity to the information superhighway.’’